Monday, May 9, 2016

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, doesn’t talk all that much about education issues, but when he does, it is usually about the Common Core, rankings and spending. And usually he is wrong, wrong and wrong.

In one Trump ad this year, he hit all three in just a few sentences:

“I’m a tremendous believer in education. But education has to be at a local level. We cannot have the bureaucrats in Washington telling you how to manage your child’s education. So Common Core is a total disaster. We can’t let it continue. We are rated 28th in the world, the United States. Think of it, 28th in the world. And, frankly, we spend far more per pupil than any other country in the world. By far. It’s not even a close second.”

And on May 2, he said:

Now, if you look at education. Thirty countries. We’re last. We’re like 30th. We’re last. So we’re last in education. If you look at cost per pupil, we’re first. So we — and by the way, there is no second because we spent so much more per pupil that they don’t even talk about No. 2. It’s ridiculous.

Talk about ridiculous.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been repeating some false statements over and over again. Here are the last four of his claims that the Post's Fact Checker gave Four Pinocchios. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

For one thing, the United States is not “last in education.” He is presumably talking about education outcomes and appears to be referring to international rankings of students, of which there are several based on different tests given in different countries.